Safety bottle breaker



April 2, 1963 L. s. FARNER SAFETY BOTTLE BREAKER Filed May 24, 1953 I ..m F

,W/ t ANS \m s 2 INVENTOR. LEWIS S. FARNER %TTORNEY United rates Patent 3,083,919 SAFETY BOTTLE BREAKER Lewis S. Famer, Cabot, Pa., assignor to L. S. Farrier & (30., Cabot, Pa., a partnership Filed May 24, 1962, Ser. No. 197,304 1 Claim. (Cl. 241--99) This invention relates to a safety bottle breaker and, more particularly, to a device for breaking bottles and other glass containers while totally enclosed in a large metal container, such as a garbage can. In view of Regu lation 13, Article 7 of the US. Department of Internal Revenue, and similar laws which require that all liquor bottles be destroyed on the premises, it has been the practies for tavern atendants to break liquor bottles by striking them against the mouth or rim portion of an open garbage can. However, in many instances, flying broken glass has caused injury to the eys, hands, feet and other portions of the body, since fragments of glass will fly in all directions.

Attempts have been made in the past to provide devices for breaking bottles, but these have not been adopted commercially since they are complicated in construction and expensive.

An object of the present invention is to provide a glass container breaking device which is devoid of the above named disadvantages and which will effectively break bottles and similar glass containers while totally enclosed in a large metal container, such as a galvanized garbage container, thereby preventing the occurrence of any flying glass fragments that might otherwise cause injury to the person breaking the bottles and to others nearby.

Another object of the invention is to provide a safety bottle breaking device which is of relatively simple and inexpensive construction and which may be collapsed and packed within the confines of the lid of the container, also which is adapted for use with any standard container having a corresponding lid size.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study of the following description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional galvanized metal, garbage container equipped with a bottle breaking device, in accordance with the present invention, and wherein a portion of the side of the container is cut away to more clearly illustrate the interior construction;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal, cross-sectional view of the construction shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a slightly enlarged view of the removable hangers and supported breaker bars shown in FIGS. 1 and 2; and,

FIG. 4 is a side view of the construction shown in FIG. 3.

Referring more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawing, numeral 1 denotes a container of any suitable material, such as a conventional galvanized metal, corrugated garbage can, provided with a lid 2. A hole is formed in the center of the lid and a guide plate 3 is welded or otherwise rigidly attached to the lid with its hole in registry with the central hole in the lid. Through the registering holes there is projected a plunger bar or rod 4 having a handle 5 at the top end and a striking ball or element 6 screw threadedly engaged on the threaded bottom end.

Thus by lifting or lowering of the handle 5, the plunger bar 6 will be moved toward or away from a bottle B which is supported on a removable mounting. The mounting comprises a pair of sheet metal hangers 8 having bent top portions 9 which are adapted to snugly fit onto the rim of the container 1, which hangers 8 are pivotally connected by pins 10 extending through the 3,083,919 Patented Apr. 2, 1963 ends thereof, to a pair of parallel breaker bars 11 of angle shape cross-section, as shown more clearly in FIGS. 3 and 4. The bars 12 are bent so as to be at a lower elevation at 12, near the center, so as to provide a well portion for holding the bottle at the center of the bars 11.

In operation, lid 2 is first removed to introduce bottle B on the breaker bars 11 and thereafter the lid is put in place, as shown in FIG. 1. Handle 5 is then speedily and vigorously pushed downwardly so that striking ball or element 6 will hit the central portion of the bottle and thereby cause it to break into many pieces which collect in the bottom of the container. Similarly, additional bottles may be separately introduced and broken until the level of broken bottles reaches the level of breaker bars 11, at which time the container 1 should be emptied.

.An important feature of the present construction is that the entire safety bottle breaking construction can be compactly packed Within the lid 2. That is, after the striking element 6 is unscrewed from rod 4, both of these may be placed inside the inverted lid 2. Hangers 8 may then be collapsed so that they will closely overlie breaker bars 1.1 and this collapsed assembly is inverted and also placed inside the lid so that central portion 12 extends above rod 4, packed cross-wise thereof in a carton to facilitate shipping.

Of course, container 1 may be made of other material than metal, such as plastic material, or any material that will withstand flying fragments of glass.

Thus it will be seen that I have provide an efiicient safety bottle breaker which is particularly useful for breaking liquor bottles by bar attendants while on the premises, also which is useful for breaking other kinds of botles, jugs or glass containers; furthermore, I have provided a bottle breaking assembly which is relatively inexpensive and simple in construction and which may be applied to existing containers already on the premises; furthermore, I have provided a bottle breaking device which will effectively break an entire bottle into small fragments.

While I have illustrated and described a single specific embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustration only, and that various changes and modifications may be made within the contemplation of my invention and within the scope of the following claims.

Iclaim:

In combination with a container having a lid, a glass bottle breaking device comprising a pair of hangers supported on opposed rim portions of the container, bottle supporting bar means extending substantially diametrically and horizontally within the container and comprising a pair of spaced, parallel, angle-shape metal bars converging downwardly at an acute angle toward the center of said bottle supporting bar means to form a well to receive and hold a bottle at the central portion, said bars having end portions pivotally connected to the lower end portions of said hangers, a plunger extending vertically through a hole in the central portion of the lid, a handle connected to the top of the plunger and an enlarged striking element connected to the bottom of the plunger, whereby upon vertical reciprocation of the plunger, said striking element will strike a glass bottle supported on said supporting bar means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

